Pony Club C3 Testing!

Hi all,
I'm taking my C3 for the first time in about 3 weeks. I've been lucky enough to work with a few NE's and I'm pretty confident in my skills. However, there's not anyone in my region that has gotten this rating in 2-3 years, so I have no one to ask about it. Has anyone on here taken this rating recently or in the past? Do you have any overall tips/advice? Anything is good!
Thanks!

I took it two years ago. Unfortunately I failed. I had never jumped my horse with trot poles in front and I never really trotted to a fence, so that was an utter disaster. I should have prepared better. I think my horse and I were not having a very match up day. I ended up passing everything for my switch rides and failed everything when I was on my horse. One of my most embarrassing rides to date. I wanted to retake it last summer, but I fell and broke my ankle, so I didn't have the chance. Now I have a green horse who will not be able to do a C3 rating for a long time, so I guess I have lost my chance.

My advice to you is to be confident in your answers. As you are riding, think about what you like and do not like about each movement, that way you have some feedback to give to your rater(s). Also, during warm up and group riding time, don't spend all your time diddling around on the outside rail. Show off what you can do. If you aren't so good at something, try not to do it right in front of the judge. Save your best movements for when they have their eyes on you. Even when you do something that absolutely sucks, be sure to tell the rater what you liked about it first. They like to hear that you are confident (but not oblivious to the fact that you can and will make mistakes). That would be my best advice for you. Good luck! I'm sure you'll pass with flying colors.

Thanks for all of the input. It sounds like you're been really unlucky. :( I think that biggest part of it for me will be making sure that I have enough detail when I talk about my ride. Usually when I ride my mind wanders a little bit but I think I woun't have a hard time paying attention.

Buuuuump?

-"if you can't ride well, then figure out a way to talk well enough they forget about your ride"

-knowing your horse is veryyyy important!

Good luck!

Totally. I hope that my speaking skills are up to par since PC has always put an emphasis on being able to explain your actions. When ever I've had a chance to practice my explanations they tend to go really well...and then I forget my words. Oh well.

When I took my c3 [and passed] the girl whose horse I did switch rides on totally dissed my riding and said I messed up her horse. Don't DO THAT, they will fail you ! That girl would have failed anyways, but they were never going to pass her after that !

Don't forget to practice riding with out stirrups on the flat and over fences.

Not sure how much advice I have, when I took it there wasnt all the HB and stuff like that. It was a 3 full day long test of knowledge and riding. I was the only one out of 5 people to pass.

Sounds good. I already took my HB, so it's only the riding and related things left now. I've been going w/o stirrups for a while, so I'm pretty confident there. The whole process is intimidating for me though. Last year out of 8 testers in my region none passed...Hopefully that isn't the same this year.

Let's see if I can remember the C3 ratins as it's been awhile -

It is very important that you know how to lunge correctly, the Pony Club way, in a proper lunging cavesson. You also need to remember to have gloves and a helmet while lunging. You need to *practice* this skill with your horse, because they are fairly strict about how you handle the extra loops of line and your whip and they want to see you control and influence your horse's way of going, not just have them loaf along at the end of the line.

Also, it's more important to be able to give the examiner an accurate analysis of your ride than it is to have a perfect ride. In other words, if you miss a distance to a fence, and tell the examiner that you lost a little pace coming up the hill and failed to correct for it and that caused a deep, weak spot, you'll actually do better than the candidate on a push button horse who nails the distance but can't provide any analysis. So I would watch a lot of You Tube video and education video, and really try to develop your eye and analysis. Ask an instructor if you can stand in the ring during a lesson and give her your version of what happened and have her correct and critique your analysis.

Those were the two big stumbing blocks that I remember for C3, if I remember more, I'll post more.

^^ that reminds me!!

When you lunge in side riens I believe that for your C3 your pony must be in a first level frame NOT a training level.....or at least that's what is is for dressage C3 :/ might be different!!